Healthy eating project comes to Doncaster

Every year the Renewi (formerly Shanks) Corporate Social Responsibility Fund supports environmentally friendly schemes surrounding their award-winning waste treatment facility at Manvers.

Eligible projects can apply for up to £3,000 a year if they are within 3.5km (as the crow flies) of the Manvers facility, and up to £1,000 a year if they are further away but still within Barnsley, Doncaster or Rotherham council areas.

Renewi Assistant Community Education Liaison Officer, Rebecca Wilson, said: “We want to make a positive contribution to the local community by supporting initiatives like these. All the projects aim to make a real difference to people’s lives and we are delighted to be able to help.”

This year, £3,000 has been awarded to Mexborough Community Partnership to fund a project worker for a social inclusion gardening project on local allotments. Food will be harvested, prepared and cooked on site.

The Personalisation Forum Group in Doncaster is a peer support organisation working in the community to improve people’s mental wellbeing through active participation. It received £750 towards gardening equipment to transform an unsightly overgrown area into a small community garden growing fresh produce.

Mexborough Food Bank in Doncaster was awarded £1,150 towards a food poverty programme. They will run grow, cook and eat sessions focusing on avoiding food waste, and support a ‘holiday hunger’ initiative during school holiday times.

Grimethorpe Activity Zone in Barnsley, a small charity working with children and young people in a deprived community, received £1,000 to fund summer school holiday activities. Themes will include healthy eating, and free food will be available at the sessions.

And Blackburn Primary School in Rotherham was awarded £1,000 to convert a disused piece of land into a nature garden for their eco club. The school’s young ‘eco warriors’ will take ownership of this and be encouraged to learn about plants and nature.